the evening being now far spent I thought it better to pass the Medicine river and remain all night at Shannon's camp; I passed the river on a raft which we soon constructed for the purpose.
— from The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 by William Clark

Nor need you either,’ he added, turning to the old man, ‘if you were not as weak as a reed, and nearly as senseless.’
— from The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

A Puritanism that came into fashion with the tirade against romances, all novels and stories being considered as dangerous and false.
— from The Slang Dictionary: Etymological, Historical and Andecdotal by John Camden Hotten

But if reason of itself does not sufficiently determine the will, if the latter is subject also to subjective conditions (particular impulses) which do not always coincide with the objective conditions; in a word, if the will does not in itself completely accord with reason (which is actually the case with men), then the actions which objectively are recognised as necessary are subjectively contingent, and the determination of such a will according to objective laws is obligation, that is to say, the relation of the objective laws to a will that is not thoroughly good is conceived as the determination of the will of a rational being by principles of reason, but which the will from its nature does not of necessity follow.
— from Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals by Immanuel Kant

1 A religious and national animosity still divides the two largest communions of the Christian world; and the schism of Constantinople, by alienating her most useful allies, and provoking her most dangerous enemies, has precipitated the decline and fall of the Roman empire in the East.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

A Puritanism that came in fashion with the tirade against romances, all novels and stories being considered as dangerous and false.
— from A Dictionary of Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words Used at the Present Day in the Streets of London; the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge; the Houses of Parliament; the Dens of St. Giles; and the Palaces of St. James. by John Camden Hotten

You may see such disfigurements far and wide over California—and in some such places, where only meadows and forests are visible—not a living creature, not a house, no stick or stone or remnant of a ruin, and not a sound, not even a whisper to disturb the Sabbath stillness—you will find it hard to believe that there stood at one time a fiercely-flourishing little city, of two thousand or three thousand souls, with its newspaper, fire company, brass band, volunteer militia, bank, hotels, noisy Fourth of July processions and speeches, gambling hells crammed with tobacco smoke, profanity, and rough-bearded men of all nations and colors, with tables heaped with gold dust sufficient for the revenues of a German principality—streets crowded and rife with business—town lots worth four hundred dollars a front foot—labor, laughter, music, dancing, swearing, fighting, shooting, stabbing—a bloody inquest and a man for breakfast every morning—everything that delights and adorns existence—all the appointments and appurtenances of a thriving and prosperous and promising young city,—and
— from Roughing It by Mark Twain

She will go away in the morning and return at night, and she will bring back with her, to relieve you, a nurse of excellent conduct and capacity, who is now disengaged.
— from The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

And then Dr. Franklin began to share his deepest hopes and fears about the outcome of their efforts, and this is what he said: "I have often looked at that picture behind the President without being able to tell whether it was a rising or setting Sun: But now at length I have the happiness to know that it is a rising and not a setting Sun."
— from State of the Union Addresses (1790-2006) by United States. Presidents

Some of them are true republics in the European sense, countries in which the constitutional machinery is a reality and not a sham.
— from South America: Observations and Impressions New edition corrected and revised by Bryce, James Bryce, Viscount

{136} There is a bird that carries Love-messages; and comes and goes Between each star that tarries, And every rose that blows: A bird that can not tire, Whose throat ’s a throbbing lyre, Whose song is now a rose, And now a starry fire.
— from The Poems of Madison Cawein, Volume 2 (of 5) New world idylls and poems of love by Madison Julius Cawein

The ‘Prodromos theatri botanici’ of 1620 consisted of descriptions of 600 species, which the author regarded as new, although several had, as a matter of fact, been already described by de l’Écluse.
— from Herbals, Their Origin and Evolution: A Chapter in the History of Botany 1470-1670 by Agnes Robertson Arber

“I'll get off—when I get good and ready, and not a second sooner.
— from The Valley of the Giants by Peter B. (Peter Bernard) Kyne

Here, worn out mentally and physically, she was forced to stop and rest a night and sleep in a bed.
— from The Way of the Wind by Zoé Anderson Norris

As is well known, when the last members were signing, he looked towards the President's chair, at the back of which there was a representation of a rising sun, and, after observing to some of his associates near him that painters had found it difficult in their art to distinguish a rising from a setting sun, he concluded with this exultant peroration: "I have often and often, in the course of the session, and the vicissitudes of my hopes and fears as to its issue, looked at that behind the President, without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting: but now, at length, I have the happiness to know, that it is a rising and not a setting sun."
— from Benjamin Franklin; Self-Revealed, Volume 2 (of 2) A Biographical and Critical Study Based Mainly on his own Writings by Wiliam Cabell Bruce

If among the members of an organization, which professes to be of an exclusively religious character, men should be found who are unquestionably religious or moral, this fact would no more prove it to be a religious or moral institution, than would the membership of the same persons to a railroad or municipal corporation prove such a corporation to be a religious and not a secular organization.
— from Monks, Popes, and their Political Intrigues by John Alberger

The whole of this prodigious space is covered by a single rock, in which the eye can detect no break or interruption, save at its borders, where is a broad, sweeping cornice, traced in horizontal panel-work, exceedingly noble and regular; and not a single pier or pillar of any kind contributes to support it.
— from Rambles in the Mammoth Cave, during the Year 1844 By a Visiter by Alexander Clark Bullitt

Everything I see impresses on me more and more our own need of a {120} complete renovation and restoration, if we would rise as a communion to be a reality and not a sham.
— from Journal in France in 1845 and 1848 with Letters from Italy in 1847 Of Things and Persons Concerning the Church and Education by T. W. (Thomas William) Allies